Organization

Well my goal was to have our house in working order by October 1 and I am proud to say we did it!!!  I can't believe how much I am liking our house now with all our updates and having it clean!  Finally getting the hang of working, having a kid, and keeping the house kinda clean... just in time for #2 to come in a ruin it all!   So is life - all good things though so no complaints here - I guess the little ones are worth it.

It seems to have completely slipped my mind that I am not getting fat just because I am eating too much ice cream but a human is actually growing in there and will soon join our family on the outside.  First is was - the baby is coming after the Ironman - then it was - the house is a mess we have to finish that up - now that all that is done it's hitting me that this is happening and I should probably think about packing some sort of bag or making a plan so if this little one...unlike her sister...decides to show up early I am semi-ly prepared.   We will see.  Right now I am enjoying a week of a little relaxation - work has picked up a little again so I am trying to get as much wrapped up as I possibly can in the next few weeks - but just having our house done and clean has relieved my anxiety quite a bit.   Not to mention having Jared back!  It's awesome.  I nearly forgot how much I like having that guy around - he's pretty fun!

I will post pictures of our house soon - just want some of the last finishing touches to be complete before I totally share the finished product - although is it ever really finished...I think not.

This is hilarious is you have not heard it yet...I love it!  Enjoy!

Ironman Videos

Tenley Cheering

End of the Race sometime in the last hour

This is Mary - this guy - her friend pulled her in a boat for the swim, pulled her behind his bike, and pushed her the whole marathon.  She has Muscular Dystrophy

Life Update

Soooooooo   I haven't written on here is a LONG time.  Let me give you a little update on our life here.

Since March Jared has been in hard core training for his Ironman - this means he works out 20-30 hours a week in addition to his normal job.   This means that we do not ever see each other.  I have also been very very busy with work - which is awesome - but has been very very chaotic.    In addition to us both being super busy with work and working out we have decided to do some home renovations that we have been saving for since we bought our house.  We have also been travelling a lot for Jared's races, training, and various other things.   We have hardly been home which has lead our house to be a giant disaster area and no time for things like Blog Updates.

I am happy to say that our renovations are almost complete!  Jared's Ironman is Complete! My work is still busy but slowing down a little - so hopefully we will have a little time to breath now.  My goal is to have all home things done by the end of September.  I also am quitting at my dad's office so I will just be focusing on Real Estate.

Tenley is doing great - she is hilarious - she talks a lot and is picking up more words all the time.  She knows tons of animal noises and loves animals in general.  She is loving to climb on things, loves to play with duke and be outside, she loves music and dances a lot.

Jared is doing great at his job and happy to be taking a break from training for a little while.  Tenley is very upsessed with her Dada and follows him around contantly and asks for him contantly when he is not here.

I am doing really well with work and am 32 weeks pregnant right now.   Having our second kid was always something that was happening after Jared's Ironman and now that the Ironman is over it is now hitting me that this is really happening - Ahh.

All in all we are doing great but I am really hoping to get a bunch of stuff wrapped up by the end of September so that October can be a relaxing month where we can enjoy our last time of being a family of 4 (Jared, Me, Tenley, & Duke).  We also cannot decide on a name for #2 so we have just been calling her #2.

OK so there is a little update.  I'll try to do better.

Weekend up at my Dad's Condo

Hanging out - glad to have their dad around

Swimming in TC with Grandpa

Ready to go in the morning

Lois

I love randomness and I love doing random acts of kindness.  My favorite is when you don't even know you are doing something wonderful - but you are.

Today about 4:30 I had just gotten home from a class I was in all day, Jared was home because he worked from home today so that he could watch Tenley - who was sleeping upstairs at the time, and Duke was running around with his Tennis Ball  A pretty typical day here at the Vermeulen House.  I had just sat down to unwind and enjoy the last moments before Tenley woke up and wanted to play when there was a small knock at our front door followed by a doorbell ring.  I walked to the door expecting to find a UPS guy or someone selling something - it's a pretty common time for the "sales girls" of the neighborhood to come sell me a candy bar or something to raise money for their school, trip, sports, etc.    

I opened the door to find an elderly woman standing there, she held up our Christmas card and said is this you? (Jared and I had put little candy bags attached to our Christmas cards and dropped them in all of our neighbors paper boxes around Christmas)

"Yes!" I said a little skeptical.  Then she asked if she could come in.  "Of Course!" I said and helped her up the step into the house.  

She then handed me some books and said "I have a doll too for this one (pointing to Tenley's picture on the card) but I couldn't find it, I looked and I just couldn't find it, I'll find it and bring it over though."

She said her name was Lois and she lives across the street and up one house, she asked how old Tenley was  (who was now crying upstairs wanting to get up from her nap).  She just kept looking at the card and almost tearing up and then she said fighting back the tears, "My daughter was really sick for 9 months I took care of her, she said that she wanted to go home so they let her go home and she died 4 days later -  This was two days after Christmas.  I saw your card and it just meant so much to me, I said to myself - someone is thinking about me and I hung your card right on the wall.  I didn't know who you were, but this card meant so much to me."

I gave her a hug and said how sorry I was for her loss.  It didn't go un-noticed that her daughter had been sick for 9 months and Tenley was 9 months old - even though the time lines didn't match up perfectly - it was still very apparent.

Jared had some out to meet Lois by now and Lois continued to tell us that she lived by herself in that house and her son comes 5 days a week to help her with things.  She can't walk very far so she had driven over to our house (literally 100 feet away).  I told her that if she ever needed anything to please give us a call - I took our card back and wrote our phone numbers on the back.  Jared started talking to her about his work and refrigerators - I knew Tenley had to meet Lois.  I ran upstairs and Tenley came down - she took one look at Lois and gave her a HUGE beaming smile.

Lois laughed and said "I really came to meet you - you are much cuter then your picture even - I have a doll for you but I can't find it.  Your eyes are so beautiful" she continued to laugh at Tenley as Tenley continued to give huge smiles and play a game of hide and seek with her.

After a few more minutes of chatting Lois was leaving and said, "I would love for you to come over some time.  I can't walk far so I had to drive over her.  I would just love for you to come over - maybe once the whether is nicer."

I assured her that we would be over, encouraged her to call if she ever needed anything, and said thank you so much for the books and future doll for Tenley.

"I'm gonna take this card and hang it right back up" she said as she walked out the door.  "It means so much to me."

All that because I wanted to get rid of the extra candy we had laying around the house and use the rest of the Christmas cards we ordered.  It just makes me think we affect so many people every day that we don't even know about.  Maybe just as we pass them by, maybe because we want to get rid of some extra candy, maybe how we interact with them in the store, or how they see us interact with someone else.  God is always working in so many ways that we don't even know about.  I will never doubt His timing and His plans - they are awesome.

I am planning on going to visit Lois "when the weather gets nicer" and am thinking I will start sending her cards once a month - so that she knows someone is thinking about her.

We got several other letters from neighbors after we handed out our card saying how much it meant to them and other nice things - I had no idea it would get any response and like I said I was just trying to use up stuff.

Love when God uses me and I don't even know it.  Thankful that this time He showed me that I was used, and I know so many times I will never have the "Lois" to come tell me how my actions/behaviors are used - but I am very thankful for my Lois.

Video! i Finally Took The Time To Do It

And now for your viewing pleasure:

Little Gem Of The Day

Here's my little Gem that I found today:

"You have just enough time to do God's will.  If you can't get it all done, it means you are trying to do more then God intended for you to do.  Living for God leads to a simpler life and a saner schedule, it also leads to peace of mind."

I love this - I think I've said it on here before, but I don't like when people say "there isn't enough hours in the day" cause the truth is there are the PERFECT amount of hours in a day - God didn't mess that up.  And my other thing I have to always remind myself  "sometimes you have to say NO to good things, so you can say YES to great things!"

Happy Friday everyone!

Florida!

We just got back from a week in BEAUTIFUL Florida!  We stayed with my mom and step-dad in a house they are renting, it had it's own little pool and everything.  We had a great time.  My sister, Erin, came for half the time we were there.  It was nice to literally have nothing to do, we sat by the pool visited the beach and went for walks.  Tenley had a great time swimming everyday and did a little shopping :)

Here are some lovely pics of our trip!

You Are Who You Are For A Reason

Came across this little gem this morning and I couldn't agree or believe what it says any more then I do.  Enjoy:

You are who you are for a reason.
You're part of an intricate plan.
You're a precious and perfect unique design,
Called God's special woman or man.

You look like you look for a reason.
Our God made no mistake.
He knit you together within the womb,
You're just what he wanted to make.

The parents you had were the ones he chose,
And no matter how you may feel,
They were custom-designed with God's plan in mind,
And they bear the Master's seal.

No, that trauma you faced was not easy.
And God wept that it hurt you so;
But it was allowed to shape your heart
So that into his likeness you'd grow.

You are who you are for a reason,
You've been formed by the Master's rod.
You are who you are, beloved,
Because there is a God!

 - Russell Kelfer

Test

Just wondering who is out there... (my friend just did this on her blog and I like it)  let me know!

Giving/Expectaions

"Give With No Expectations"

"Expect Nothing From Everyone"

Two of my favorite little words of wisdom.

This is something I learned about 6 years ago - I mean learned like you have heard it said 900 times before but then one day someone says it and it just smacks you in the face and changes your life.

It really isn't a gift if there is an expectation there is it?  I don't give presents to people at holidays or birthdays because I am expecting something.  If I got no gifts at Christmas I wouldn't care - I love to get people gifts and I expect nothing in return.  I don't do nice things for people thinking, well now they owe me one.  When I buy someone lunch cause I want to, I am in no way thinking they owe me a lunch in the future or owe me anything.  And when I give money to a charity, church, man on the corner, etc - I don't care what they do with the money - I am giving it to them and it is theirs to decide what to do with.  If they waste it - that is not my concern I have given it to them and what they do with it is not my business because I do not put an expectation on the gift.

I know a lot of people who have exoectaions on gifts.  A lot of these people are probably not even aware that they have expectations - but they do.  Some people will buy you meals, take you fun places, and maybe instead of repaying a meal for a meal they expect more time from you, or preferential treatment, or a referral or sorts.  These people can be hard to spot...some are obvious, some are tricky.  These are the people that when we are out to eat or offer to pay for other things I never let them.  I'll go to great lengths never to let these people pay for anything for me - I don't want that hanging over my head that they think I "owe" them something.

If you in anyway have any expectation because of anything you are thinking about doing for me or giving me I say to you "Don't do, Don't give it to me".

I think when you put expectations on things you automatically are setting people up to fail.  I have learned this with family, friends, and especially in my marriage.  Here is an example.  Jared always takes out our trash now it would be easy for me to have an expectation that Jared is supposed to take out the trash.  Now let's look at the two options here:

1.  I Expect Jared to take out the trash:  

      a. when he does - he did his job

      b. when he doesn't - he's letting me down, he didn't do it again, come on Jared take out the TRASH!

2.  I don't expect Jared to take out the trash: 

     a. when he does - YAY THANKS Jared! You took out the trash!

     b. when he doesn't - oh shoot the trash still needs to go out, I'll do it 

When you don't expect it allows everything to be a blessing, an unexpected surprise, leaving a lot of disappointment and getting let down out of my life.  Unspoken expectations are the WORST.  A lot of Assuming is going on there which can only lead to problems.  Also, when you have these expectations you are putting a lot of pressure on someone else and they might have no idea any of this is happening in your head - then they are letting you down and they don't even know it.  Instead remove the expectations and let them surprise you, honor you, and do nice things for you - instead of just doing what they are supposed to do anyone. It's a whole mental shift - and I for one LOVE IT.

I ask myself this all the time: What unspoken or assumed expectations am I putting on other people?  Then I try to stop.  It's worked wonders in my life.

Again as a disclaimer - I'm sure my blog posts are going to wander all over and back again - but that's how I think so just go with it :0)

Honesty Disclaimer

I consider myself a pretty honest person.  I just don't see the point in being fake or not telling people like it is.  I don't believe in being rude to people there are some things that you should just keep to yourself, but if you ask my opinion about something you better be ready for my honest answer.

I started this blog to be like my journal, in a way, to write what I was feeling and just be myself, I keep finding myself not typing up something that I would like to because I know different people read this and I know that what I want to write would probably offend them or something - this has been making me feel dis-honest because then this blog really isn't about me and it's not my journal it's a half truth of me and it makes me feel weird.  So I have decided that I am just going to write what I want because after all this is my blog about me and my thoughts.  I am a firm believer that everyone is entitled to their own opinion and I am sure many people will not agree with what I say and that is just fine with me.  Frankly I'm glad - because isn't that the beauty of people and creation = we are all different!  Also, just because I may think differently about something then you doesn't mean I don't like you, or I think you are a bad person, or anything, I just don't think like you do on a certain topic.  I can't say whether you will think I am a bad person for thinking what I think but frankly...here comes honesty...I don't care.  If you think I am a bad person or wrong or whatever that is fine with me, you're entitled to your opinion - I really don't care.

So if you are offended by things, just don't read my blog anymore - but Life O Michelle is about my life and thoughts so HOLD ON this could get rocky - maybe not - I have no idea what future posts hold but consider this a fair warning.